


Protostar

by ForensicSpider98



Series: Love After the Fact [18]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Cultural Differences, All this stress is bad for the baby, Altean Adam (Voltron), Altean Prince Lance (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Balmeran Hunk (Voltron), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Galra Shiro (Voltron), Galran Prince Keith (Voltron), Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M, Moral Ambiguity, Moral Dilemmas, Multi, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Olkari Pidge | Katie Holt, Post-War, it's keith. keith is the baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23226076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForensicSpider98/pseuds/ForensicSpider98
Summary: Protostar: A young star that is still gathering mass from its parent nebula
Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Alfor/Coran (Voltron), Allura/Lotor/Romelle (Voltron), Haggar/Zarkon (Voltron), Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Love After the Fact [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635043
Comments: 10
Kudos: 198





	Protostar

Keith stares at the Galra ship. It’s Imperial, to be sure, with Emperor Zarkon’s sigil glowing on the side. But it’s not his armada ship, a massive, hulking behemoth that somehow has never known a planet. It’s a smaller vessel not even equipped with a komar laser, because everyone’s friends now. Or will be tomorrow.

Keith won’t be on that ship, anyway. He’ll be on a smaller one, just him and his littermate.

Thin, slender hands find his shoulders. “Keith?”

Keith turns, smiling at his mother. “Hi, Mom.”

Krolia’s face is agony as she brushes the longer, lavender fur framing his jaw. “This is not why I agreed to be the emperor’s advisor. Not so I could see my only kit stolen away from me.”

“I’m not being stolen away-”

“No, you’re being sold to an overbred king and his little whore of a son.”

“You didn’t seem to mind when it was Lotor, Allura, and Romelle. Romelle isn't even royalty. She was just a student of Alfor's!”

“Those were not my kits!” Krolia hisses, mother’s instinct running hot and fast. “You are! And still very much a kit, I might add!”

“You, Kolivan, and Shiro trained me. You know that if said little whore wants to touch me-”

“You will do nothing! You’ll bear down and do whatever he asks of you and you know it!” Krolia bares her teeth at him.

Keith swallows a chirp at her words. They're frightening. He glares at the red stone beneath his feet. He doesn’t know how to ease his mother. “I’ll do whatever it takes, not whatever he asks… How do you know he’s a little whore, anyway?”

“Rumor and conjecture from the Alteans has reached us. Alfor should be more careful about who he brings with him on his little trips. That 'Lord Lanval' went on at some length once I showed the slightest interest. He talked all about the escapades he’s been on with the prince. Not something any mother would want for her kit, no matter their age.”

“I’ll be okay. I promise. And if not, you’ll get what you want. The little whore, dead.” Keith embraces his mother. Krolia runs a hand through her son’s long, long hair, draws back to see how it frames his face.

“Altean males wear their hair shorter than this.”

“I’m a Galra. I wear my hair however I want. This is how I want it.”

“Because you find it pretty?”

“Is it not pretty?” Keith’s vanity is something only three people know of, one being his mother.

“It’s beautiful, kitten.” Keith ducks his head at the common endearment, hiding a tiny smile. Krolia turns him, works his hair into a braid, tying a knot into the end. “If they cut it, we’re calling it an act of war.”

She kisses the top of his head and Keith smiles. For much of his childhood, he’s missed his mother dearly. He’s aching inside knowing it’s his turn to tear them apart.

Krolia inhales sharply, hands finding Keith’s shoulders, squeezing them tightly. Keith's smile weakens as Shiro approaches. Shiro smiles back, gray eyes warm. “It’s time to go.”

“Now? I thought we were leaving later.”

“You and I are leaving now. Our ship moves more slowly than the imperial cruiser.”

“Right.” Keith takes a deep breath, throws his arms around his mother, rubbing their cheeks together, blending their scents.

Krolia gently rubs the base of one of his ears, whispering softly. “You’ll make a wonderful prince, kitten, and a _magnificent_ king. Just you wait.”

“I’d like to be a better man than that, I think.” 

Krolia pulls back first, probably because she knows it’s the one thing her kit doesn’t have the strength for. “Wouldn’t we all?” Her sharp gaze finds Shiro. “You take care of my kit and see him safe to Altea or so help me you will shovel elk shit until the day you die.”

“I believe you.” 

Shiro puts an arm around Keith, guides him into their small ship. Keith's shaking, an anxious chirp passing his lips unbidden. As the ramp lifts closed, he turns back just in time to see his mother looking lost and alone. As the craft lifts off, hovering above the planet, Keith sits at the window and watches his home grow small. The Lone Sea glitters bright blue just off the pole, the Wood, the Red Waste, mountain ranges like teeth, savannahs, the Stone Forest all visible from space. His home, ever shrinking from view, the moons hovering just behind.

And then it's gone. His home is gone, hidden from view and Keith struggles to breathe. Around him, the hum of the ship stops, the violet lights fading to a dull glow.

“Shiro, what-”

“You’re my littermate.”

“Of course I am. How could I be anything else?” What is Shiro talking about?

“Come here. I want you to look at something.”

Keith gets up, comes to the pilot’s chair, gazes out at an infinite nothing dotted with stars. “I don’t really see anything. Just… nothing. It’s beautiful.”

It is. It makes him feel big and small at the same time. Like he could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone he wanted.

“Yeah. Being a soldier, I easily forget a lot how beautiful it can be. Use your third lens, there.” Shiro points, fingertip a mere spot from the glass. There's a bit of a haze, there. A blend of faint red and blue that shouldn't be there. Keith does as he’s told, engaging his third lens, the one that saturates color, lets him see what might otherwise not be seen. His kind once used them to send secret messages to one another, until the method was discovered by the Alteans.

In front of him, spreading as far as he can see, is a mass of blue and red gasses swirl like a vortex, stars living within, both being born and-

“Look.” Keith points, mouth agape, at a noticeably massive star. “That one. It’s dying. Why?”

“It grew too big in the nebula. It can’t sustain its size. The larger a star is, the faster it fades.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“The most hated truth of all: death _is_ beautiful.”

“You’re clearly thinking along the same lines as my mother.”

“You’re a kit. It’s my instinct. You’re also my littermate and my friend. I only want the best for you.”

“I know.”

“This is your last chance, Keith. They will know by now that we have left. They are already trying to make contact... Say the word, and we will never reach Altea. I swear it.”

Keith has never been more scared in his life, as another chirp can attest. He put on a brave face for his mother, but the truth of it is that if he could, he’d fly through that nebula and into the cosmos on the other side. And he can. Shiro will take him in a tick, in a heartbeat, never leave his side as they run their entire lives. But he won’t.

He won’t flee, not because Emperor Zarkon gave him an order, but for all the little people that shrank into nothing as he left his homeworld. He won’t flee, because those people are but three fifths of the people he is saving. 

Death may be beautiful, but so is life. Everything in its time.

“We continue on to Altea,” he whispers, another, tinier chirp following.

“As you wish,” Shiro murmurs, rubbing Keith’s ear. Keith purrs, smiles at his adoptive littermate.

“Shiro?”

“Hm?”

“Look after my mom for me?”

“I’ll look after all of Daibazaal for you, especially your mother. You look after Altea. Gods know we all need it.”

“Whatever I can do, I will do it.”

Shiro bows his head, restarts the engines. As the ship's core begins to warm again, Keith notices the closest star, off to the side of the frontal glass. It's a new star, not very young, but not yet finished growing either. Not burning hot blue, the warm red star twinkles as it gathers its strength, dreaming of the day when it can drift freely in the infinite void. Perhaps it will find a star to share orbit with, a solar system to preside over. The possibilities are endless.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time on Love After the Fact: Lance catches up with a long-time friend.


End file.
